It is pretty lame to name your band after the style of music you play — I'm looking at you, Metallica — but these six, including Daft Punk and Cap'n Jazz, bands did just the opposite: naming themselves after styles of music they do not play.
1. Daft Punk
Perhaps the biggest dance act in the world right now is French duo Daft Punk, who have never released anything that even resembles punk rock. The duo got their name from a live review of their early three-piece rock band Darlin' — with Laurent Brancowitz of Phoenix — which described their sound as "daft, punky thrash."
2. Eagles of Death Metal
The music of guitarist Josh Homme has always leaned toward the heavy side of rock music, but nobody in their right mind would ever call any of his bands "death metal" — except maybe my aunt, who listens to Michael Bublé during dinner. Still, Homme named his garage rock side project Eagles of Death Metal, a term he used to describe Polish death metal band Vader.
3. Gospel Music
Gospel Music is the solo moniker of Owen Holmes, who has collaborated with members of prominent indie pop bands such as The Magnetic Fields and Camera Obscura on his albums, so it should be pretty obvious that he does not actually perform gospel music.
4. The Pop Group
From The Ramones to The Buzzcocks, there were far more elements of pop music in the original wave of punk bands than people might think, but when the post-punk movement rolled around in the late 1970s, pretty much all traces of pop were obliterated. A perfect example of this is the ironically named Pop Group, which combined punk, reggae, free jazz, funk and noise to create extreme music that could never be mistaken for pop.
5. Cap'n Jazz
Cap'n Jazz formed back in 1989, when its members were still teenagers — drummer Mike Kinsella was 12 — and their band name absolutely screams "weird teenage inside joke." Cap'n Jazz may have rewritten the rules of punk music and practically invented Midwest emo, but jazz is pretty far off their radar, though later on Kinsella's band American Football would incorporate some vaguely jazzy elements into their music.
6. The Folk Implosion
Lou Barlow of the Folk Implosion — and Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr. — may have been fond of acoustic guitars, but "folk" is not really an appropriate term for the kind of music he writes, which is as often punky and experimental as it is mellow. The name "The Folk Implosion" is a play on The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, though John Spencer actually incorporated blues into his songs.
What other bands are named after genres they don't play? Let us know down in the comments section.
© 2024 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
